Software-related intellectual property is one of the most lucrative ways of generating passive income for a lifetime. That’s because you can take a bit of your time and build a software system. And you can distribute the same software to millions of users at a meager cost over and over again.
The MQL5 community is the largest marketplace for forex and regular trading globally. Also, the large user base for the applications in the market should make the platform attractive for developers.
The MQL5 community works as your willing partner to make your intellectual property worthwhile and provide you with a passive income for your innovation and contribution.
The following article discusses how the MQL5 community works and how a developer can build a profitable business in the MQL5 marketplace.
What Are Marketplace Businesses?
The Investopedia definition for a marketplace is, “a place where parties can gather to facilitate the exchange of goods and services.” Marketplaces are the avenues where people have traded goods and services since time immemorial. Merchants sell their products and wares in these marketplaces.
Customers visit the marketplaces to purchase the goods on sale. Then there are people who run the marketplaces to maintain order and a smooth operation. To conquer any marketplace, you must understand it in the first place.
In a world that is increasingly going digital, marketplaces also have digital avatars. The internet has many marketplaces that aggregate sellers and buyers. Amazon, eBay, Etsy, etc. are examples of marketplaces that create a digital space to transact in physical goods. These marketplaces regulate and monitor activities in their respective marketplaces. This reduces the friction of transactions and adds value to both sellers and customers.
There are other marketplaces that deal in completely digital goods. Some examples are:
- Shopify: A marketplace where developers can sell various software add-ons for the Shopify suite of products.
- Envato Market: A marketplace for software add-ons for WordPress CMS. The marketplace also has other digital assets that help in building digital solutions on top of WordPress.
- iStock: A marketplace where photographers can license their images.
Similarly, there are marketplaces for AWS applications, stock videos, music, etc. Developers can list themselves and their software solutions on these marketplaces. When a software license is sold, the marketplace operators transfer the cost of the license to the developer after taking a modest fee.
There are many different business models, depending on the marketplace. But the bottom line is that these marketplaces do most of the heavy lifting to build the infrastructure and generate buyer traffic. Developers have the ability to use the infrastructure and traffic to build a passive income stream.
The MQL5 Community
MQL stands for MetaQuotes Language. It was developed as a specialized high-level object-oriented programming language. It’s built on top of the C++ programming language. Therefore, all the applications for MetaTrader 5 have been written in MQL5.
MetaTrader is a popular trading platform with a wide range of functionalities. It is the most popular foreign exchange market, also known as Forex trading platform globally, with a 69% market share.
As mentioned earlier, MQL5 is built on top of C++. Therefore, any developer familiar with C++ can quickly understand the programming language. Furthermore, MetaQuotes has given extensive documentation on their website, which will help to start programming using MQL5.
Financial knowledge is not necessary to program with MQL5. A thorough understanding of and experience in C++ is the only requirement. The MetaTrader platform and IDE for MQL5 are available as free downloads in the MQL5 marketplace. Knowledge of statistics and technical analysis will be an advantage for developers, but it is unnecessary.
You can sell the different software solutions for MetaTrader through the MQL5 marketplace. The software hosting, licensing, intellectual property protection, payments, etc. are handled by MetaQuotes.
5 Reasons Why Developers Should Focus on MQL5 Community
The following sections highlight some of the other reasons developers should consider building applications for the MQL5 community.
1. Easy To Code
MQL5 is built on top of C++. It is effortless for developers familiar with C++ to understand and code in MQL5. The syntax and terminology in MQL5 are similar to C++. There is extensive documentation, useful libraries, and other resources to assist developers and make their lives easier.
2. Demographics of Users
The users of the MetaTrader platform are the users of the applications bought from the MQL5 marketplace. Hedge funds and traders in financial markets are the majority of customers of the MQL5 marketplace. They have considerably more spending power than users of most other digital marketplaces.
Users in the MQL5 community are not looking for cheap bargains. They are looking for robust, scalable applications, and they do not mind paying a good price for applications.
3. Ticket Size
In software marketplaces that have participation from a lot of developers, the ticket size per sale is quite low. It is evident from the prices quoted in marketplaces like Shopify, Woocommerce, and Envato. Since there are few creators in the MQL5 community, the ticket size of each sale is significantly higher. The higher purchasing power of the customers in the marketplace also helps the developers to quote higher prices for applications.
4. Creator Shortage
Though MetaTrader is the largest community of forex traders, it is not much recognized outside the financial community. Consequently, very few developers are aware of the marketplace. Hence, it turns out to be less competitive and becomes lucrative for the developers who are part of the community.
They can gain a larger share of the revenue pie, and there is very little competition. While developers have to compete in a crowded space in most other marketplaces, developers can easily defeat failure and make a career in the MQL5 marketplace.
5. Asymmetric Upside
One of the important factors that give a high return on effort is bets that have an asymmetric upside. Building applications for the MQL5 marketplace gives asymmetric upside for developers. Therefore, it has a high chance of giving excellent returns for the efforts put in by developers.
The four factors mentioned in the previous sections are the reasons for the asymmetrical upside for developers in the MQL5 community. The probability of making a sound profit for an experienced developer with a great application is very high.
Marketplace Tilted Toward Developers
MQL5 marketplace is a community where the playing field is tilted toward developers. The few developers in the ecosystem, the high purchasing power of users, and the high ticket size are some factors that make it easy for developers to generate high profits with minimal effort.
The digital ecosystem offers skilled professionals avenues to create multiple revenue streams. Developing successful applications in software marketplaces is developers’ route for passive income.
So, if you are a developer looking forward to making a long-lasting career with a long-term passive income, the MQL5 community should be the place you can begin your journey.
